Nepal General Elections 2022 and India-Nepal Relations
Speaker: Sanjay Upadhya, Nepali author and analyst based in USA who has worked for the BBC, the Times of London, Inter Press Service, Khaleej Times and the United Nations. His latest book is Empowered and Imperiled: Nepal’s Peace Puzzle in Bits and Pieces (Kathmandu: FinePrint Books, 2022)
Chair: Prof. S.D. Muni, Professor Emeritus, Jawaharlal Nehru University and former Ambassador and Special Envoy, Government of India
Party manifestos in the run-up to the 20 November 2022 parliamentary elections in Nepal have highlighted the urgency of maintaining a balanced relationship with the country’s two giant neighbours, India and China. Nepal-India relations have always been entwined with the country’s domestic electoral politics. This time, China’s motives and intentions in Nepal are also being sharply scrutinised. More broadly, Kathmandu and New Delhi will have to navigate long-standing issues such as borders, sharing of water resources, and the plight of the madhesis. This challenge would be all the more pressing amid the general Nepali grumbles of India’s ‘big brotherliness’ and India’s perceptions of tepid Nepali sensitivity to New Delhi’s security concerns
